Their transient nature means tripletail are more of a “luck” fish that one just happens to come across and catch. However, with several years experience chasing touchy tripletail, Capt. Kenny Shiyou has learned a few tricks of the trade that he believes puts him on more fish.
Stowe away a few shrimp
It would be a shame to run across some tripletail on the way in from a speckled trout trip and not have any bait. That’s why Shiyou always leaves those extra 10 bigger shrimp in his livewell.
He just tells his anglers that there is a time and place for them, so let them be.
Artificial lures better than nothing
It’s not very common, but Shiyou has hooked tripletail on DOA shrimp. The problem with artificial lures, and even dead shrimp for that matter, is that you’ve got to be extremely quick with the hookset because the fish is going to spit it almost instantly.
Pass up recently run crab traps
Although you can’t tell if a trap line with no boat working it has recently been run, Shiyou said tripletail on those lines being actively run will be very spooky and jumpy.
Those fish have been pulled off the line, and it could be hours before they reorient beneath the buoys.
Older buoys hold more fish
Old, beat-up crab pots with algae-covered bottoms are their own little ecosystem for small crustaceans and baitfish. That makes them perfect places for tripletail to lie in ambush.
In fact, Shiyou said the cleaner the bottom of a crab pot, the less likely you are to see a fish under it.
Double buoys stand out in the crowd
Every now and then, Shiyou runs across a crab trap that has two buoys twisted together at the surface. He isn’t sure if it’s just because these stand out to the point that they are more memorable or if they actually more consistently hold fish, but he never passes up double buoys, and has several marked in his GPS unit.
Distressed black drum become tripletail magnets
Shiyou said there’s no telling how many tripletail he’s caught underneath big black drum that are struggling on the surface after being caught and released.
Don’t spend too much time on free-floaters
It’s not unusual to run across a tripletail free-floating out in the middle of nowhere with nothing floating on the surface. In this case, they just kind of swim around in a big circle.
Slowing down the boat and getting back to him with no reference point is one thing, but actually making the right cast and getting him to eat is something else entirely.
Wait out a fish pulled off a buoy
When he’s fishing with a cork, Shiyou said tripletail have a tendency to pull off crab pots and follow the bait without eating.
When this happens, try to let those fish get back to the buoys before trying again because, in Shiyou’s experience, tripletail are 10 times harder to catch away from pots.
Fish a calm, clear day with a slack tide
Calm, clear days obviously allow anglers to more clearly see tripletail suspended below floating objects. However, the slack tide might not be so obvious.
Shiyou has figured out that the stronger the current the more tripletail won’t hang on the bottom of the crab pots. They don’t like fast-moving water jerking on the buoy, so they tend to stay away.
Make repeated passes on crab trap lines
Anglers not familiar with fishing tripletail sometimes get bored running around looking at empty buoys. With more anglers taking advantage of this resource, you might be running a line right behind somebody else.
Keep checking lines throughout the day, and you might be surprised with how many new fish show up.
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